Australian logistics software firm WiseTech Global plans to lay off about 2,000 people over the next two years, in what could mark one of the largest artificial intelligence-related workforce reductions by an Australian company to date.
Shares of the company, which also announced an estimate-beating first-half profit, jumped as much as 10.7 per cent in early trading, and were up about 11 per cent per cent at as at 3pm AEDT.
WiseTech Global, which makes shipping and logistics management software, said it will integrate AI into its customer software as well as internal operations, affecting around 29 per cent of its global workforce of around 7,000 across 40 countries.
“Software development has experienced its most significant shift in decades,” chief executive Zubin Appoo said.
“The era of manually writing code as the core act of engineering is over.”
The cuts, among the largest in Australia in percentage terms, could shrink some teams by half, starting with product and development, and customer service roles across the organisation.
One of the divisions affected will be its US cloud computing arm, E2open, acquired in August for $2.1 billion, which may see cuts of up to 50 per cent. E2open had 3,873 full-time employees, as of February 2025, according to its latest 10-K filing.
The layoffs highlight how quickly AI is reshaping workplace roles globally, as fast‑improving automation tools take over routine administrative work and handle complex coding tasks with increasing speed and precision, driving widespread adoption.
Last month, Amazon announced 16,000 job cuts worldwide in a second round of redundancies at the tech giant in three months, adding to a wave of redundancies by U.S. companies across sectors this year.
WiseTech, founded more than three decades ago, reported first-half underlying net profit of $114.5 million, 6 per cent ahead of market consensus, according to Jefferies. It also announced an interim dividend of 6.8 cents and reaffirmed its full-year outlook.
Despite the day’s surge, WiseTech’s shares remain 68 per cent below their November 2024 peak, as allegations surrounding founder and former CEO Richard White, including claims of payments to an alleged former lover, fuelled a sharp investor exodus.
Concerns around how AI would affect the software maker have also kept the stock under pressure.
– Reuters
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